Thursday, 10 January 2013

Propaganda big and small

Dr Joseph Goebbels:

Was the German Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment in the 1930’s and 1940’s and it was he who gave propaganda a bad name, and from his time on governments other than China don’t have a Minister using that title. But that does not mean that propaganda has not continued to be used in various shapes and forms right up to the present day.

For example Israel uses propaganda principles of which Goebbels would have been proud and with great expertise and financial backing and this is ironic when one considers how Goebbels targeted Germany and then Europe’s Jews and drove them into ghettos, and in only a few short years had Germans and others willingly mass murdering Jewish people in numbers numbering up to seven million without blinking an eye.

The Israeli Government is still using typical propaganda techniques to justify locking Palestinians into ghettos in the West Bank and else where in the occupied territories, land which they stole, and they have successfully convinced the world that the Palestinians have no country and that they should simply accept living as refugees in enclaves surrounded by mad Zionist religious fanatics who have built a New style Berlin wall. One could go further and call where the Palestinians live, concentration camps and the Israeli army and security teams Gestapo, but perhaps that is still to come.

Recently a New Zealand Citizen received a spam email from an Israeli business man:

Fried Electric is a well established company located in the Northern city of Haifa, Israel, with over 40 years of experience in the design and manufacture of laboratory equipment.

we specialize in the design of Magnetic Stirrers, Hotplates, Immersion Thermostats / Circulators and Thermostatic Water Baths, all with proven performance and sustainability.

By controlling the entire production process from design to manufacture we guarantee that products are of highest standard and at competitive prices.

We produce laboratory equipment for a variety of market sectors. These include major research institutes (such as the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology), hospitals, food and pharmaceutical industry.

The low cost of the products makes them ideally suited for use in schools and academic institutes as well.

Our products are also distributed through dealers in the USA, Europe, Asia,South America and Africa .

We will be happy to consult you with your needs and provide you with laboratory equipment of the highest quality.

You have sent me SPAM and I wonder how you obtained my address and why you might assume I’m a distributor of laboratory equipment… Be that as it may, stop sending more of your marketing material.

There is nothing from Israel that I want, except to see the people there join the international campaign to end the oppression of their neighbours and return all land seized by continual invasion spanning more than four decades.

xxxx

Auckland

New Zealand

Well it would seem that Israeli propaganda is alive and well in the Israeli business world for this response was sent:

If you learn more about the history and the problem you will change your mind we all want that any person in earth will live safe free have job and enjoy

You should learn more before any comment like that.

I wish you happy New Year to you and your family and we all wish for global piece in the all world.

I invite you to come to Israel and see with your own eyes.

Reuven

Fried Electric

Now our New Zealand spam receiver sent this response:

Dear Reuven Bookstein at Fried Electrical

Your reply is arrogant and presumes ignorance in others. There is a body of facts gleaned from the continuum of history which easily nullifies your flippant response. On the other hand, one might speculate on how much time you have spent in the illegal settlements or alongside Palestinians being bombarded by Israel...

It would be wise to consider international opposition to destabilising expansionist/apartheid-like Israel policies – a global movement that is neither new nor whimsical trend. And that movement is having successes...

For example, in New Zealand there exists a very vigorous movement that has exerted pressure consistently over many years. Without the presence of this local movement it would be difficult to imagine the following decision of 12 December 2012 having eventuated.

New Zealand divests from Israeli Arms Company Elbit Systems and companies of Israeli settlement-builder Lev Leviev. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which invests money on behalf of New Zealand’s government, announced on 12 December [2012] that it is divesting from Israeli military company Elbit Systems and Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev’s company, Africa Israel, and its construction subsidiary Danya Cebus over their construction of Israeli settlements. http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/new-zealand-divests-from-companies-of-israeli-settlement-builder-lev-leviev-10180

It’s obvious that you have views as deeply-seated as mine on this matter. I doubt whether either is going to influence the other, Reuven, and in bidding you farewell, I’m making it clear that the company you represent is not welcome here.

xxxx

Auckland

New Zealand

The above communication between an Israeli business and a New Zealand simply verifies how successful propaganda has been inside Israel, but it also proves from a New Zealand perspective how meaningful and important it is to respond to the sender of the spam email. You may like to do so...the email address is above.

I believe we should all respond in a like manner to combat propaganda from what ever source; below is letter to the editor from myself about New Zealand propaganda published in our local paper.

Editor

Manawatu Standard

A media myth

How often do you have to tell a lie before it becomes fact or even a myth? Is there really an answer to that question?

Take for example the editorial in the Manawatu Standard by Michael Commings on Saturday January 5th. He makes two claims, the first that National has a mandate for Assets sales and secondly that National was elected comfortably. Both are wrong in fact. But hey if you keep repeating the above, National Party supporters may in the end believe the lie, for that’s what it is.

Mandate in this case suggests a majority in favour of asset sales; well let’s look at the facts:

Before the election the following parties were opposed to the asset sales: Labour, the Greens, NZ First, Maori Party, Mana Movement were absolutely opposed and the United Future Party opposed the immensity of the sales and wanted a referendum.

For the sales were National and the Act Party.

The Labour, Green, NZ First, Maori, Mana and United Future received more votes than National Act, in fact Act was decimated.

So no mandate was received for the asset sales and that is a proven fact: now to the second fib, opinion, myth.

The National victory was anything but comfortable, in fact if the Act Party had not been bribed, and Peter Dunne and the Maori party had not opted for Ministerial positions thereby ignoring principle, National would not have been able to govern. The use of the word comfortably is not so much an outright lie as it is self justification and public relations spin backed up and supported by the main stream media, or what’s left of it.

It has also been proven that voters voted for National for reasons other than asset sales. Issues like aligning our wages to Australia, creating jobs, getting into surplus etc, were also a part of Nationals brighter future. Thousands of National Party voters have signed the petition against assets sales.

The editor needs to ask himself, could National lose the next election if the Asset sales should not go ahead as he suggests but rather because National has failed to achieve fully or in part its other promises, such as jobs, better education, health etc.